Aren't college athletics supposed to be all about the student-athletes?

Recent developments in the college sports world really make you wonder.

Lane Kiffin jumps from the football program at Tennessee to USC and immediately is off and running in Los Angeles. Coaches can just jump from school to school with relatively no problem.

But when an athlete wants to change schools, it is a whole different story.

Brent Metcalf, Jay Borschel, Joey Slaton and Dan LeClere each lost a year of eligibility when they transferred from Virginia Tech to Iowa. None of them did anything wrong, they just wanted to switch schools when Coach Tom Brands left Virginia Tech for Iowa.

I know the rules are in place so a coach can't just switch schools and take all his athletes with them.

But it seems grossly unfair that a coach can switch schools and resume coaching right away at his new stop while it is much more difficult for the athletes to transfer to a different school.

It also is frustrating to see the NCAA take away a year of eligibility from a great kid like Jake Deitchler. All the kid did was make an Olympic Team as a teenager and do a great job representing his country. Deitchler accepted prize money before changing his mind and deciding to wrestle collegiately at Minnesota. He gave the money back and is enrolled in school, but the NCAA still decided to take a year of his college eligibility away.

It makes no sense for them to do this. Deitchler has returned the money and is a college freshman. It's sad to see a great kid penalized for something like that.

The National Duals, once again, provided plenty of drama this year.

As expected, No. 1 Iowa and No. 2 Iowa State squared off in the finals.

A newspaper reporter asked me before the dual who I thought would win and I quickly responded, "Whoever wins the match at 125."

The 125 bout between Iowa's Matt McDonough and Iowa State's Andrew Long may have been the best match I have seen all year. It featured two stud freshmen who opened it up and wrestled an entertaining, high-scoring match.

Long cradled McDonough to his back for three points early on, but the hard-charging McDonough simply never quits. He pulled out a 9-8 win, holding off a Long takedown attempt in the closing seconds.

The sport could use more, a lot more, matches like this down the road.

Kudos to Iowa for pulling out the win despite missing three injured starters. Iowa State beat all three Hawkeye backups.

Iowa State was missing top-ranked Nick Gallick, and he may be done for the year with a hip injury. Gallick's loss will make it difficult for the Cyclones to win the team title in March, but don't count the Cyclones out.

New ISU coach Kevin Jackson has certainly brought plenty of fire and intensity to the rivalry.

I can't wait to see how everything turns out in late March in Omaha.